Mainers will decide more than who goes to Congress, the Blaine House and the Legislature on Nov. 3, as local ballots across the state carry school mergers, closures and multimillion-dollar fire trucks that will shape tax bills for years.
Many of those questions come from the same pressures shaping bigger elections, including an aging population, shrinking enrollment and inflation pushing property taxes up. In some towns, voters see consolidation as the answer. In others, they are trying to undo it.
Here are some of the nuts-and-bolts questions facing voters around Maine.
Schools
School governance is one of Maine’s hottest issues, even two decades after Gov. John Baldacci’s 2007 consolidation law pushed districts to merge but did not make them stick to it.
In the Mount Desert Island region, voters in eight towns will decide whether to fold their independent school districts into a single regional school unit. Supporters argue a merger would let towns pool resources, adopt one budget and cut duplication.
“I think this is the first time since the consolidation efforts from the Baldacci administration that we have really dug our teeth into it and came up with a plan,” Superintendent Mike Zboray, who leads MDI-area schools, said. “And if it doesn’t pass, we’ll take a look at what we did and how to make changes.”
The proposal has drawn opposition from residents worried about losing local control and about how a combined budget would affect their towns. But the plan would not close any schools. Under the plan, the new school board could not close a school without town approval, according to a presentation from Zboray’s district.
The merger needs majority approval in Bar Harbor, Mount Desert, Southwest Harbor, Tremont and Trenton. Voters in the outer island towns of Cranberry Isles, Frenchboro and Swan’s Island will also weigh in, and each would join the new RSU only if its own voters approve.
Another part of rural Maine is considering withdrawing from its school district. Buckfield, Hartford, and Sumner will vote on whether to secede from the Rumford-based RSU 10 over concerns about losing local control since the district formed in 2009.
Voters in Strong are debating a school district withdrawal as well. Some locals said withdrawing from a Phillips-based district could help protect their local school from being closed.
Other towns are considering closing a school outright. Small class sizes have stretched budgets statewide, and some communities have been willing to give up a local school in exchange for tax relief.
At least two towns, Eddington and Waterford, will decide this November whether to make that trade. Both towns’ ballots will list the estimated annual cost of keeping the school open. That cost is nearly $670,000 for Eddington’s elementary school and about $442,000 for Waterford’s.
Fire
Voters in Caribou and China will decide whether to allow their municipalities to buy pricey new fire trucks. Tariffs, industry consolidation and regulations have driven the cost of new fire trucks up to well over $1 million in some cases, squeezing Maine taxpayers.
Caribou voters will decide whether to allow the city to spend up to $2.9 million to replace its aging aerial ladder truck.
“The city’s current ladder truck has served the city well for many years but has reached the end of its serviceable life,” a statement on the city’s ballot reads.
China voters are considering allowing a smaller expenditure: $750,000 for a new fire apparatus. Residents approved a $200,000 allocation at China’s June town meeting.
Meeting recordings
Two towns, Alfred and Limerick, will vote on whether to begin recording local government meetings. Recordings are common across Maine’s larger towns, but it took a citizens’ petition in Alfred to bring the option to a public vote. The town’s budget committee has estimated that recordings will require nearly $6,000.
If passed, recordings will be made of future annual town meetings, select board, planning board and zoning board meetings. The proposal in Limerick would require the town to stream or broadcast most public meetings.
Daniel O’Connor is a Report for America corps member who covers rural government as part of the partnership between the Bangor Daily News and The Maine Monitor, with additional support from BDN and Monitor readers.